40 
THE ELOEAL WOELD AND GAEDEN GUIDE. 
larger stem. Stocks, therefore, should be chosen with reference to 
the purposes they are intended to be put to; the bringer being 
desired to cut them above the first fork (both in order that the whole 
stem may be preserved, and that the strength of shoot they are 
likely individually to produce the succeeding summer, may in some 
degree be judged of from the quantity of head to be cut off, and its 
clean and healthy appearance) ; it should be remembered, that stocks 
being so very easy to procure, none but the very straightest and 
best should be chosen; and the rejected ones may be planted in some 
out-of-the-way place, to be used in case they should be wanted. 
About a third more stocks should be chosen than are absolutely 
wanted, and the others may be laid in the ground, as a corps de 
reserve j they will most likely be worked in the season, and without 
costing any trouble, except as to budding, according to their health 
and strength ; the advantage of a supply of different heights, sizes, 
and sorts will be obtained. 
When the stocks are taken up, they should be kept as short a 
time as possible out of the ground, as the air injures the root. This 
is of the greatest importance, as the strength of the expected shoots 
will mainly depend upon it; but if they have been weakened by 
lying out of the ground, they will regain a portion of their strength 
by being much shortened in the stem ; for the roots of all trees 
being proportioned to the trunk they have to maintain, it is evident 
that an injury to the one should be followed by a reduction of the 
other; and thus, to a certain extent, the more head removed in the 
autumn, the freer supply of new wood will be produced in the spring. 
If it be desired to keep stocks some time before planting, they 
must, like all other trees, have their roots covered with mould, which 
is technically called, laying by the heels. When stocks are sent any 
distance, a puddle of clay and water should be made, and the stocks 
dipped into it, so as to form a coating to defend them from the 
wind, and then, being packed up in an old bass-mat, they will carry 
without injury. 
The trimming of the stocks is next to be considered : first, as to 
the requisite height ; secondly, as to the mode. The heights most 
desirable are, four feet, three feet, two feet six inches, two feet, one 
foot six inches, one foot. The manner is, by a clean slanting cut, at 
about an angle of fifty degrees, the upper part of the remaining 
stock being a quarter of an inch above a bud. If the bud be not 
enough marked to show its position, let the lower part of the slant 
be that distance above the ring denoting where the bud is to spring 
from, and the extra plant can be afterwards removed. The object 
in cutting so near to a bud is, that when the first shoot starts, 
the bark may begin to form over the wound ; but if there is any 
distance between the wound and the base of the new shoot, this will 
not be the case, and the dead wood will gradually eat into the stock. 
If, therefore, the excision is not made in such way that the stock 
may begin to be covered the first year, it will be better to leave a 
few inches (namely, as much as is between the bud cut off, and that 
desired to produce the new shoot), that the tender shoots which 
spring from the inserted buds may be tied to it, delaying its removal 
